Bees Fighting Japanese Crows

Usually it’s crows attacking seabirds in Tokyo, Japan, but the seabirds have been getting help from an unlikely source lately — honeybees.

Beehives from rural areas have been relocated to a water-treatment plant near the Tokyo airport. Seabirds known as “little terns” nest in this area after the migration from Australia and surrounding countries.

Crows often attack the nesting terns. In one attack five years ago, crows picked apart 300 eggs and killed 160 young birds. Bees tend to attack anything dark in color that approaches their hives, so conservationists hope the bees will also keep the crows away from the terns.

The little terns aren’t endangered, but Japan’s Red Data Book lists them as vulnerable.

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